At the
recent NSCAA convention, Mike Parsons of the NSCAA Academy presented a
State Diploma session on "Striking the Ball" to a group of under 8
players. The session is an excellent example of a way to teach the
different surfaces of the foot and to start the development of the
passing technique in young players.
After
some fun warm-up exercises of tag (that included problem solving), the
players were asked to drop a football onto their foot, kick it in the
air with the top of the foot and catch it in a one touch juggle. The
clinician then explained to the players that this part of the foot was
called the instep. He asked them to keep their kicks below head height
and to keep the ball from spinning. It was emphasized (to the coaches in
attendance) that the coach should not expect perfection, but the players
should be challenged to improve. Different players were asked to
"demonstrate."
The
players were then asked to juggle kick the ball with the inside of their
feet, followed by some attempts with the outside of the foot. The
players now have a fairly good idea of where the instep, inside and
outside of the foot is located.
Several sets of cones were randomly set up in an area as "gates" 2
yards apart. A pair of players was asked to pass the ball to one
another, only the pass had to travel through one of the gates and a
different gate had to be used for each pass. The clinician asked them to
use the inside of the foot.
After
the example, the whole team was paired up. Their were to keep track of
the number of passes they completed through the gates. The clinician
asked for hands of "teams" that made some low number of passes and kept
raising the number until the maximum was reached. This way, all players
were able to raise their hands at some point.
The
players were then asked to do the same thing with the instep and the
outside of the foot. The hour and fifteen minute session was ended with
a scrimmage.
Very
little instruction was meted out, the players got lots of ball touches,
they seemed to have a lot of fun and the coach was able to train some
real soccer fundamentals--what else can a coach, parent or player want
from a training session.
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